Jon Biemer has more than forty years of experience creating sustainability including Repair Cafes, Free Cycling, Village Building Convergences, and ballot initiatives for Outdoor School and Clean Energy. Biemer is a mechanical engineer and holds a certificate in Process-oriented Psychology. He has managed utility energy conservation programs and now provides Organizational Development consulting to non-profits. He offsets his Carbon Footprint and buys resale clothing. In 2013 he walked the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route from Alberta to Nebraska with the Compassionate Earth Walk. Over the years, Jon and his wife have planted food forests, eco-remodeled their home, and lived without a power clothes dryer, refrigerator and car.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION: On the Staff of Our Children

PART I: CREATING SUSTAINABILITY

The Handprint Story. Planting Trees. The Ecological Footprint. Footprint and Handprint Thinking. Voluntary Carbon Offsets. Twelve Handprint Opportunities.

Cleaning Products. Intelligent Clothing. Eliminating Disposables. Six Handprint Opportunities.

PART II: ALLYING WITH HUMANITY

Community Sharing. Repair Cafés. Ecovillages. Village Building Convergence. Community-friendly Businesses. Community Rights. Fourteen Handprint Opportunities.

The Giveaway. Gleaning. Crowdfunding. Online Gifting Platforms. Donating to Environmental Causes. Philanthropy. Nine Handprint Opportunities.

Socially Responsible Investing. Divesting Fossil Fuels. Shareholder Activism. Where Black Rock Goes¿ Six Handprint Opportunities.

The Earth Charter. Flint¿s Water. Landfills. Environmental Justice in Indian Country. Standing Rock. One Congregation¿s Initiative. Eight Handprint Opportunities.

Sustaining Entrepreneurs. Education for Sustainable Development. Educating Girls in the Developing World. Contraception in the Developing World. Seven Handprint Opportunities.

PART III: TEACHING AND LEARNING HANDPRINTS

Environmental Literacy. Zoos and Aquariums. Nature Schools. Environmental College Education. Nine Handprint Opportunities.

Exposing Young People to Nature. Ecotourism. Experiential Education. Seven Handprint Opportunities.

PART IV: FOOD HANDPRINTS

Organic Agriculture. Agricultural Carbon Sequestration. Perennials. Intensive Ranching and Farming. Agroforestry. Seven Handprint Opportunities.

Gardening. Farmers Markets. Community Supported Agriculture. Food Labeling. Eating as if the Environment Mattered. Not All Meat is Created Equal. Partnering with Grocery Stores. Fifteen Handprint Opportunities.

PART V: SHELTER, MOTION, AND ENERGY HANDPRINTS

Small Houses. Eco Remodeling. Multifamily Housing. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Ten Handprint Opportunities.

Walking. The Bicycle. The Electric Car. A Low-car Lifestyle. Urban Mass Transit. Inter-city Rail. The Next Generations. Eight Handprint Opportunities.

Energy Efficiency. Wind. Solar Electricity. Distributed Energy. Ten Handprint Opportunities.

PART VI: STEWARDSHIP HANDPRINTS

The Serengeti of America. Endangered Species. Permaculture. Bioremediation. The Superfund. Thirteen Handprint Opportunities.

Pete Seeger¿s Legacy. Removing Dams. Water Restoration. Iconic River Revivals. Seven Handprint Opportunities.

The Coast. Marine Protected Areas. Fisheries. Reefs. Signature Marine Species. Marine Pollution Prevention. Ocean Gyres. Six Handprint Opportunities.

PART VII: WITHIN OUR GRASP

Resale. Recycling. The Benefit Corporation. Cradle to Cradle. We the People. Happiness. Ten Handprint Opportunities.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement. Putting a Price on Carbon. Cities (and Everyone Else) versus Climate Change. Eight Handprint Opportunities.

Transitions. Claiming Your Handprints. When Something Breaks. Three Handprint Opportunities.

Twelve Future Collective Handprints. The Prophesy of Jake Swamp.

APPENDIX 1. Drawdown Solutions vis a vis Handprint Opportunities

APPENDIX 2. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

NOTES

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR